Today saw the final three races of the America’s Cup challenger selection series, the Louis Vuitton Cup Round Robin get underway after the cancellation of racing yesterday.

Once again today racing was delayed, though the southerly wind direction was due to see some thermal enhancement as the afternoon wore on, so racing was a much more likely possibility than yesterday’s very unstable conditions.

The big news from yesterday was a nosedive by French Orient Express Racing Team – who are due to have a must-win race today against INEOS Britannia in order to remain in the competition – causing some damage. They had managed to effect a temporary repair yesterday, but they will have been happy to have an extra 24 hours to make the repair a little more robust – and fully check the boat over.

The other big news from yesterday was that co-skipper of American Magic, Paul Goodison had picked up an injury so would not be racing yesterday – instead replaced by Lucas Calabrese, who has trained extensively with the team. This remains the case today and the team are reported to be taking it day-by-day.

It has been reported by a number of outlets that Goodison fell through a hatch in the team’s America’s Cup boat and sustained some rib damage, but we have been unable to officially verify that.

Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Race 28 INEOS Britannia Vs Orient Express Racing Team

Skippers
INEOS Britannia: Ben Ainlsie & Dylan Fletcher
Orient Express Racing Team: Quentin Delapierre & Kevin Pepponet

The first race of the day was set to be the most important as the French needed to win to force a sail-off with Alinghi Red Bull Racing to see who is knocked out of the series. A short delay saw the race start 10 minutes late in winds that were just above the minimum 6.5 knots required to start a race.

Given the light winds and the associated risk of falling off the foils, it was maybe not a huge surprise top see both teams reluctant to engage in the pre-start. The French were first to head back to the startline very early and the Brits seemed content to let them go and claim the pin end of the line.

It was pretty poor racecraft from Delapierre and Pepponet who crossed the line right at the pin, with the Brits also hitting the line at pace at the windward end of the line. With such a significant gap, there was little chance of the French forcing the Brits to tack away and Ainslie and Fletcher were easily able to foot into the space between the two boats and accelerate to get slightly ahead. 

When the French got to the left hand boundary INEOS were easily able to tack on the French with a tight cover and lead them all the way up the beat.

The Brits managed to hook up some decent puffs on the downwind and, coupled with their impressive downwind pace, INEOS had pulled away to a 45 second lead on the first lap.

There were a few moments of peril in the remaining few laps as the wind softened a little in the middle of the race and made foiling through manoeuvres a bit touch-and-go, but the Brits were never really troubled and came home to win by over a minute. “It was a tough little race there in the light breeze,” said Ainslie. “I want to make a shout out to the French team and it’s great to see France back in the Cup and they’ve got a great young team.”

“Its not the best feeling in the world. We fought hard but it was not enough,” said Delapierre. “What this team has achieved is unbelievable. Unfortunately you can’t see it on the results, but putting together this team 1 year before and being able to compete against these experienced teams is good.”

What did we learn from Louis Vuitton Cup Race 28?

It was not the strongest showing from the French today, who came out desperately in need of a race win to avoid going out of the competition. However, they were not even able to land a punch. It is perhaps surprising that they did not come out with a bit more of an all-or-nothing approach and try to force the Brits off their foils in the start box.

That being said it is slightly unclear whether the French are still carrying any issues from their nose-dive yesterday. It’s been a pretty decent showing by the French given their small budget, small team and lack of time racing an AC75. But ultimately it was not enough to make it through the Round Robins.

INEOS was looking decent today in light winds and again was impressive downwind. Of course this race was over at the first tack, so they were never really under much pressure.

This win for the Brits means that they stand a chance of tying Luna Rossa for the series win, in the unlikely event that the Italians should lose the next race against Alinghi Red Bull Racing which would mean a race off between Luna Rossa and INEOS for the series win. The winner of the Round Robins gets to choose their competition in the Louis Vuitton Semi Finals, so it is a significant advantage.

Photo: Ian Roman / America’s Cup

Race 29 Alinghi Red Bull Racing Vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Skippers
Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Arnaud Psarofaghis & Maxime Bachelin
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni

It seemed a very unlikely outcome indeed that Alinghi Red Bull Racing would beat the form team of the semi-finals but they did just that… albeit by dint of Luna Rossa picking up some damage to one of their foil arms and not being able to lower it in the lead up to the race. As such the Italian team were forced to concede the race.

There was briefly a question as to whether Luna Rossa had deliberately given up the race to take on INEOS in a sail-off for. But given how much of an advantage picking your semi-final competition is, it’s almost impossible to imagine the Italians would have deliberately given up a pretty clear shot at taking that advantage by beating Alinghi (currently looking like the weakest Semi-Final team) today.

Photo: Am Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Race 30 Emirates Team New Zealand Vs American Magic

Skippers
Emirates Team New Zealand: Pete Burling & Nathan Outteridge
Tom Slingsby & Lucas Calabrese

The wind remained light for this, the final race in which Emirates Team New Zealand will compete before the America’s Cup itself. And the light winds quickly became a major issue for American Magic, who dropped off their foils in the light pre-start.

The US-flagged boat did manage to get foiling again before the start, but they had picked up a boundary penalty in the process and any tactical decisions had been taken out of their hands by the series of events.

As such at the start Emirates Team New Zealand hit the startline on starboard in the middle of the line with the Americans crossing behind the on port looking to scrub off some more distance to clear their boundary penalty. When all was said and done the race properly got underway with around 150 metre advantage to the Kiwis.

But with both teams on split tacks and a fairly changeable wind strength and direction American Magic managed to claw back some of the gap and were only a handful of seconds adrift at the windward gate rounding. But that was as close as they got and in the light winds is was American Magic who continued to struggle staying up on their foils.

Having struggled and had some near misses, the American team dropped off their foils on the final upwind. They had been slipping back the whole way, but the final upwind saw them fall a long way behind, finally coming home fully 2 minutes and 39 seconds behind the Kiwis.

“Obviously we didn’t execute the start and were on the back foot a little. But Lucas did a great job and we didn’t have any problems with our speed,” said Slingsby after the racing.

What did we learn from Louis Vuitton Cup race 30

For the American team, a race in marginal foiling conditions is probably the worst time to have to drop in a spare skipper. Of course the races against New Zealand are irrelevant in terms of the challenger selection series, so you could also argue it’s an ideal first America’s Cup race for Calabrese. 

This race will do little to dispel the increasingly prominent view that American Magic’s AC75 has a couple of weaknesses, one of which is looking to be at the very bottom of the wind-range.

The Kiwis now leave the competition and will have plenty of technical developments still to come. They will leave this series pretty confident that the’ve got what it takes to beat any of the challengers when the America’s Cup proper rolls around on 12 October.

Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Winner’s Sail-Off Race Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Vs INEOS Britannia

Skippers
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni
INEOS Britannia: Ben Ainlsie & Dylan Fletcher

Nobody really expected this race to be on the cards at the start of the day, but with Luna Rossa’s ‘loss’ to Alinghi this quickly became possibly the most important race of the day. Given the choice of opposition, whoever wins this race is easily the most likely team to be in the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals.

The wind was still at the lighter end of the range for this sail-off, but at 8 knots for the pre-start it should have been enough to make manoeuvres a lot less risky than they have been earlier in the day. It was, then, something of a surprise to see the teams not engaging all that much.

Spithill and Bruni decided to lead back to the start very early and it was clear that the Brits were more than happy to let them go. In fact this start was almost a carbon copy of the Brit’s first race again the Orient Express Racing Team. Here the Italians hit the startline just up from the pin not fully at pace, while Ainslie and Fletcher nailed the windward end at pace, with plenty of space to foot into.

When the Italian team tacked on the left hand boundary it was a simple job for Ainslie and Fletcher to tack right in front of them and give them plenty of dirty air. From there the Brits protected the right and kept a loose cover on Luna Rossa to lead at the top mark by 18 seconds. And with few passing lanes around, the Brits were able to extend that to 29 seconds by the end of the first downwind.

From there all the Brits needed to do to was complete the course without making any major errors to take the win, and the valuable option to choose their Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Final opponents. “The start is something we’ve been spending a lot of time on as I’m quite inexperienced there and so Ben’s been doing a lot of work teaching me, as well as Giles Scott and Ian Williams,” said Fletcher of their impressive starts today.

“It’s been a very interesting series and certainly INEOS had a good end,” explained Bruni. “We’ve struggled a bit in the last couple of days, but we always knew it’s going to be hard and we are prepared for that.”

What did we learn from  the Louis Vuitton Cup Winner’s Sail-Off?

The chunky INEOS Britannia (or Big Bertha as she’s become known in my household) has really hit her stride in the second half of this Louis Vuitton Round Robin series. The team are sailing well and now have a significant advantage heading into the Semi-Finals.

We’ll see in time who the Brits choose, but Alinghi seems to be the most likely pick for the Semi-Final competition and, from what we’ve seen, you’d back the Brits to win that one. “To win the America’s Cup you have to beat the best. It’s a bit early to make a call on who we will choose, and to be honest we weren’t really expecting [to win],” said Ainslie of the choice, which will be officially made this Friday before the Semi-Final racing at the weekend.

It will have been frustrating for Luna Rossa to ‘lose’ their race against Alinghi earlier today, particularly as their technical issue appeared to be a foil arm system problem, which is a one-design part supplied to all teams by the organiser. But it would be foolish to put too much weight on today’s results. It’s hard to look past them as the form team from the whole series, but the gap is certainly not looking as big as it once was.

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